By Ferdinand Patinio/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Tuesday appealed to the clergy and the faithful for donations to help the people and rebuild church structures in Batanes which was struck by tremors early Saturday.
CBCP president and Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles and Caceres Archbishop Rolando Tria Tirona, chairman of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace issued the solidarity appeal to other bishops, Social Action Center (SAC) directors and the faithful to assist them in providing help to the victims of the twin earthquakes and also to reconstruct structures that have been damaged.
With this, the social action arm of the CBCP reported that it has initially released PHP200,000 to aid the local church in the earthquake-stricken province.
“For our part, NASSA/Caritas Philippines already released PHP200,000 pesos to initially aid the local church from the Alay Kapwa Solidarity Fund. However, since the national Caritas is also bracing for more possible typhoons to occur in the later part of the year, we need to use the disaster fund judiciously. This is the reason why we are issuing this solidarity appeal to all the dioceses,” the appeal said.
“The government is providing the needed emergency relief. And we in the church will try to complement the humanitarian response,” it added.
The Catholic prelates noted that “Bishop Danilo Ulep would also like to rebuild the churches but the prelature has limited resources to even start the reconstruction. Let us help the Prelature of Batanes assist the affected families, and rebuild the church structures.”
For those who would like to donate, they may deposit their donations to any of the following bank accounts:
Bank of the Philippine Islands Branch in Intramuros, Manila
Account Name: CBCP CARITAS FILIPINAS FOUNDATION, INC. NASSA
Account Number: 4951-0071-08
Metrobank Branch: CBCP-lntramuros
Account Name: CBCP Caritas Filipinas Foundation Inc.
Account Number: 632-7-63202788-1
Also, donors have been requested to email their deposits with the scanned copy of the deposit slip to: [email protected] for proper documentation and acknowledgment.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that the tremors have severely damaged homes, centuries’ old churches and other historical infrastructures in the province.
The series of earthquakes which struck the northernmost part of the country have displaced 2,963 people or 911 families.
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